


Angus' Alone Year

by RaineyDay



Series: Febuwhump 2021 [3]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, FebuWhump2021, Gen, Imprisonment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 09:53:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29187369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RaineyDay/pseuds/RaineyDay
Summary: Febuwhump Day 3: ImprisonmentAngus was never alone in his life. Not until now.
Relationships: Angus McDonald & Everyone, IPRE Crew | Starblaster Crew & Angus McDonald
Series: Febuwhump 2021 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2138502
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11
Collections: febuwhump 2021





	Angus' Alone Year

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place in the future of my fic Nesting! For those who are unfamiliar, all you need to know to understand this story is that it's an Eighth Bird Angus story featuring Taako as Angus' dad.
> 
> For those who may have read Nesting, here's a fun little sneak peak into the next story in that series, which will be called "Fly the Coop."

Angus shouted in alarm as the rest of his family were turned to stone around him.

He was alone now, in front of these strange judges, and he was scared.

"What are you going to do with me?" He asked, voice doing its best to waver, but he wouldn't let it.

"That is still up for debate," one of the strange voices said, and it echoed around the room.

"We cannot execute a child," one judge insisted.

"He is no true child," another argued. Normally, Angus would agree with that voice, but he felt that it might not be in his best interest on this occasion. "He has lived for decades.

"But only a half-life. He has not felt the true growth of those years. He is not as young as his body, but he is not as old as his memories," the first judge said.

Angus had to resist the urge to pout at the familiar argument. His family members insisted the same, but he didn't agree. So what if his mind wasn't fully developed? Human minds didn't fully develop until they were in their mid-twenties, and they were still considered adults at age eighteen!

But actually- maybe he should let himself pout. It would make him look younger, which could only be an advantage in this situation.

"Please! I'm scared," Angus said, letting himself cry. It was true.

"We cannot simply let him go. He is destined for horrible things, just as the others," said the fourth judge.

"He cannot do those things if we keep him here. So long as he cannot return to his ship and home, his destiny will be averted."

Angus didn't let the spark of hope he felt appear on his face. If he could convince them to keep him alive, then he could try to reunite with Aunt Lucretia, and he could help her. She wouldn't have to be alone.

He'd have to find a way to avert any measures these judges applied to prevent him from returning to the Starblaster, but there was hope.

"Then it is decided?" The first judge said. Murmurs of assent surrounded him.

"Angus McDonald will be sentenced to imprisonment for one year. If he attempts to escape, he will be executed." The judges spoke in eerie unison.

Well that wasn’t ideal. But he could work with it anyway.

A guard appeared to bind his hands behind his back, one who looked completely unmoved by the fact that he was handcuffing a child.

But maybe there would be other guards less willing to look at an apparent four year old and treat him with cruelty.

Either way, he was still alive and so he had a chance.

-

The cell that they put Angus in was predictably dark and cold and dreary.

He kept his eyes open for any particularly likely escape options, but he figured he’d be here for a little while. With such high stakes, he wanted to be absolute sure of his plans before he made an attempt.

He hoped that Aunt Lucretia was okay. It was just her and Fisher on the ship now, and for all that Fisher was clearly more intelligent than most animals, maybe comparable to sentience even, they couldn’t really communicate with humanoids very well.

Which meant that Aunt Lucretia was alone. And she was going to continue to be alone until Angus could find a way out of here and back to the ship.

Assuming he even made it out at all.

If he didn’t make it out, she could be alone for the rest of the year. Or for the rest of her life.

Because if anything happened to her- or to the ship- if Aunt Lucretia couldn’t get the ship out of the planar system- then that would be it. They wouldn’t reform on the deck next year. The Hunger would come and they- he, because it was just Angus now- would die here.

It was terrifying. Angus had been afraid that he would be killed by the judges, but he hadn’t thought through the consequences of that potentiality until now, and it was so much worse than he’d realized.

And worse- he had no way to know if Aunt Lucretia was even still alive. The judges had said something about the ‘eighth harbinger’ so they must think that there was at least a chance that she was still alive.

But they weren’t all-knowing, at least, not as much as they claimed. Because if they were, then they would already know where she was. Which was good, in that it meant that she had a chance, but it was bad because it also meant that she could technically already be dead.

Angus doubted they’d offer the respect of telling him if they found her either.

Maybe if he mentioned that he was her nephew. But probably not.

And he wasn’t sure he’d want to know that anyway, if it happened. It wouldn’t make him any more motivated to escape than he already was. It would just hurt.

He was already hurting. He’d watched his dad and aunt and uncles be _turned to stone_. It was horrible. They still looked so much like themselves that a part of his mind had thought his eyes were simply playing a trick on him.

But they were dead. They wouldn’t wake up until the next cycle, which was a full year away, if the ever woke up at all.

Angus wondered if it had hurt. He wondered if they were aware of anything around them anymore. He wondered if he’d just seen his family for the last time.

Angus hated crying, because it made him look even more vulnerable and young than he already was, but right now he couldn’t help it. He wailed, big sobbing cries escaping his throat as he grieved.

It always hurt to see somebody die, even when they felt confident that they would see them again in the next cycle, and right now, Angus didn’t even have that. He didn’t have _anything_.

He was alone and imprisoned, and they were going to _kill him_ if he made a mistake while escaping.

The odds were stacked against him, and even though he’d been in that position before, it had never been this unbalanced. And he’d never been alone against his problems either. He’d always had his dad and aunts to help him, and he’d had his uncles for almost as long.

He knew that he was smart and capable and had the memories of a much older person, but Angus had never felt more like a child than in this moment.

And he felt so very lonely.


End file.
